Music

Songs About Food

WHAT IF? An imaginary record cover for a compilation of food-inspired music.

AOL recently contacted me to create a playlist of food-inspired songs for its "Blogger Radio" station on AOL Radio (see below for details on how to listen). After much digging through my own music collection (and some serendipitous searching online), I came up with 100 songs.

There's a heavy emphasis upon jazz and blues, a slathering of R&B, a douse of hip-hop, along with a sprinkling of pop classics and a dusting of heavy metal (o.k., just one -- Def Leppard's cheesetastic "Pour Some Sugar on Me").

As I pored over all of this gastro-music, it became pretty clear that food is more often than not a (barely veiled) euphemism for sex. Candy seems to trump just about everything edible as the most frequent object of desire. Other songs are culinary in name only (take Taste of Honey's "Sukiyaki," for example), while others immerse themselves in a heady contemplation of appetite -- I'm thinking here of the Fat Boys' great, tragicomic "Jail House Rap." And then there's food as abstraction in the form of Dizzy Gillespie's manic be-bop standard, "Salt Peanuts."

You can find the complete playlist (in alphabetical order) below. It's not comprehensive, so if you have a favorite food song that isn't covered here, please share it in the comments.

Tune In: For PC Users, listen by clicking here. If you're on a Mac, download the AOL Radio player, log in with your AOL/AIM screenname, and select "Blogger Radio" under the "Soundtracks & Themes" category. The playlist will be up until June 14, when the station gets turned over to the next DJ/blogger.

Tasty! Songs for Food Lovers

All That Meat And No Potatoes by Fats Waller

All You Can Eat by the Fat Boys

Artichoke by Cibo Matto

Augustus Gloop by Danny Elfman

Augustus Gloop by The Poozies

Banana Boat (Day-O) by Harry Belafonte

Beans And Cornbread by Louis Jordan

Beef Jerky by Cibo Matto

Birthday Cake by Cibo Matto

Black Coffee In Bed by Squeeze

Bowl Of Oranges by Bright Eyes

Brown Sugar by D'Angelo

Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones

Candy by Cameo

Candy by Morphine

Candy (Drippin' Like Water) by Snoop Dogg

Candy Shop by 50 Cent

Catfish by Bob Dylan

Catfish Blues by Jimi Hendrix

Chicken Grease by D'Angelo

Chicken Noodle Soup by Webstar & Young B

Chicken Soup With Rice by Carole King

Chocolate Buttermilk by Kool & The Gang

Chocolate City by Parliament

Chocolate Factory by R. Kelly

Choux Pastry Heart by Corinne Bailey Rae

Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk by Rufus Wainwright

Cookin' by Clifford Brown

Crawfish by Elvis Presley

Days Of Wine And Roses by Henry Mancini

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost by Lonnie Donegan